Monday, September 14, 2015

I like how Bernie Sanders talks

For all the discussion of where candidates are on different issues, I don't think enough has been said about what is so appealing about Bernie Sanders--it is the way he talks. I was glad to read Charles M Blow describe it, somewhat, in the New York Times, even if it was in an opinion piece on Sanders' difficulty in appealing to everyone:

There is an earnest, if snappy, aura to Sanders that is laudable and refreshing. One doesn’t sense the stench of ambition or the revolting unctuousness of incessant calculation. There is an idealistic crusader in the man, possibly to the point of being quixotic, but at least it doesn’t come off as corrupted by money or power or the God complex that so often attends those in pursuit of the seat behind the Resolute Desk.

Hillary may be a good person, but she is tainted. She is the creature of the Democratic machine, someone chosen long ago for name recognition over other qualified candidates--and that going back to her Senate campaign.

It's hard to listen to many politicians. It can give me unpleasant shivers, from frustration accumulated since Al Gore--whom I really wanted to win, but so wished he could talk like a man, not a product of the training and coaching of professional consultants.

It felt good to listen to Bernie Sanders. If Joe Biden had announced long ago, if Lincoln Chafee had made a better splash, I might not have turned to Sanders--too left wing--not a chance. But it feels good to listen to him. He sounds like a wise old man, caring, moral, good. He has enough years in government for me to trust him to be practical.